HotToastyRag We all know Charles Laughton can play someone likable, and we all know he can play a bad guy-but in The Strange Door he plays both! He's a man driven insane by jealousy and a broken heart, but he's not dark and brooding. He cracks jokes, giggles, and treats everything with a light touch that doesn't overlap into mugging or milking. In the midst of this very dark, creepy story, I found myself laughing every time he was on the screen!Charles lives in a creepy, mysterious house with his niece, Sally Forrest. He arranges for her to marry Richard Wyler, but the pair isn't very willing. Charles is very insistent that his plans get carried out, so he enlists his faithful servant Boris Karloff to help. Poor Boris! Throughout the movie, his only motivation is to be helpful, but he's ordered around by so many different people he gets confused. Despite Charles's humor and Boris's sweetness, this movie isn't really very good. It's not one I'd want to watch over and over again, but if you like old, campy, scary movies, you can rent it.

joe-pearce-1 Age has its benefits, as I am learning from having read other reviews here of this film. I was always a Karloff fan, but I only found Charles Laughton at the age of 11, when we got our first TV set in 1950. Not only were some of his older English films on display there, but being centered in New York City at the time as a star of the historic stage reading of DON JUAN IN HELL, he himself was all over TV, introducing AMAHL AND THE NIGHT VISITORS, doing dramatic readings, guest shots, interviews, even occasionally taking part in game shows - Charlie was nothing if not democratic. Anyway, after discovering him in this manner, the very first film I then recall him making was THE STRANGE DOOR (oh, there had been THE BIG CLOCK and THE PARADINE CASE fairly recently, but they were just a bit too early to have been a part of my youthful movie-going experience - every day, seven days a week!). What I vividly recall is that when this film was being made, the various movie columns endemic at that time made much of the teaming of Laughton and Karloff. In fact, we were promised that there would be some kind of fight scene between those two iconic actors that would be the best such event filmed since the one in William Farnum's THE SPOILERS all the way back around 1914 or so. When the film came out, it wasn't that well reviewed, and certainly without any reference to the actors' 'epic' struggle. When it finally got to my neighborhood and I went to see it at the RKO Greenpoint, it was quite disappointing, although even then I was performance-oriented and loved Laughton's wildly excessive acting job (Karloff's more restrained one, too). The promised epic fight scene never came to be; rather, the two actors simply grappled with each other for about ten seconds or so, no punches thrown, drop kicks, eyes gouged, etc. So, as with the next year's Karloff vehicle, THE BLACK CASTLE, I was sorely disappointed and had not seen either of those films since. Watching both last night, for the first time in 65 and 64 years respectively, I found my original evaluation to be pretty accurate, and that I still really did LOVE Laughton's over-the-top performance as the villain of the piece (which alone gives it my rating of 7). Laughton could wonderfully ham up even a self-effacing TV Bible reading in 1951 without the least embarrassment or apology. Is it any wonder that he walks away with this choice acting opportunity? (Another reviewer's comparison of Laughton to Tod Slaughter is very much on the mark; what a wonderful Sweeney Todd he might have made!). Current viewers may have forgotten that in 1951, leading lady Sally Forrest was enjoying a more successful movie career than anyone else in this film (in socially-relevant Ida Lupino productions, as leading lady at M-G-M to both Mickey Rooney in THE STRIP and Keefe Brasselle in BANNERLINE - all of these in the same year as THE STRANGE DOOR), but she had been brought to Hollywood as a dancer and, in the end, never quite worked out in heavier drama, especially in a costume film like this one for which she seems rather unsuited. Really, she was the perfect girl next door! When the great UNIVERSAL HORRORS book was published, they chose to end coverage of the studio's efforts in that genre with ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN, but both THE STRANGE DOOR and THE BLACK CASTLE might well have been included as they really do seem to have been the tail end of the second Universal horror cycle, especially since both make much use of the famous European castle, village and street sets from the studio's earlier classics, and these may also be the last Universal films to make use of the old Salter and Previn music scores that so enlivened their earlier efforts. Flawed, but enjoyable throughout.

MARIO GAUCI A minor but irresistible Gothic melodrama with a rampant star performance by Charles Laughton (though he gets little to do in the second half - in fact, the film sags a bit during its latter stages). Boris Karloff's role is a good one, though clearly supporting Laughton rather than co-starring; actually, too much time is devoted to the rather insipid romantic leads (Richard Stapley and Sally Forrest) - though the supporting cast (including character actors such as Paul Cavanaugh, Michael Pate and Alan Napier) is adequate enough.The plot itself is quite intriguing - leading up to a satisfying climax that's strikingly similar to the one in another Karloff film, THE RAVEN (1935). Of course, THE STRANGE DOOR reunites Karloff with Laughton almost 20 years after THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1932) - as in that film, they engage in a fisticuff at the end - and also returns the actor to Robert Louis Stevenson territory (albeit in a non-villainous role) after his unforgettable turn in THE BODY SNATCHER (1945). Despite the obvious low-budget (a fact that is betrayed, more than anything else, by having its entire score comprised of themes from previous studio efforts - including the nth revamp of the instantly recognizable cue from THE WOLF MAN [1941]!), the film is crisply shot in black-and-white and, in spite of the rather pedestrian direction, it makes the most of its limited sets.

Coventry It's rather ironic that "The Strange Door" was included in the fabulous Boris Karloff collection (horror fans, buy this!!), since his role in the story – albeit important – is rather limited in screen time. If some distributor ever comes up with the luminous idea of releasing a Charles Laughton box set, then this film most definitely should be a part of that, as it is mainly he who steals the show! Karloff is professional and reliable as always, but it's Laughton who dominates every sequence he's in; hands down. "The Strange Door" is adapted from a story by Robert Louis Stevenson (the creator of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde") and it's a truly engaging and atmospheric tale set during the Victorian era in France. Laughton portrays Sire Alain de Maledroit, a malicious nobleman who hates every still living member of his family and wants to destroy them slow & painfully. Therefore he personally selects a reputed troublemaker to marry his niece Blanche and counts on the possibility that he'll emotionally wreck her! And even though Blanche believes that her father is long dead, Sire de Maledroit keeps him locked up in the dungeons beneath the castle. Boris Karloff plays Voltan, the only servant that remained loyal to count Edmond. The story isn't always very plausible and contains quite a few immense holes. I'm sure there are easier ways for Sire de Maledroit to torture his relatives than to rely on the bad attitude of an outsider? Or how is it possible that, for twenty whole years, Blanche doesn't even suspect that her father is kept prisoner in the castle while everybody else knows? Yet, despite these and several other improbabilities, "the Strange Door" is an entertaining Gothic horror film with superb decors, a fair amount of tension and poetic dialogs. The last sequences are particularly exciting, as the castle turns out to be a labyrinth filled with eerie death traps and dark corridors. It's nice to see Karloff star in a heroic role for a change. Recommended!